A ShinRa Christmas
by septasonicxx
Summary: Rufus doesn't like Christmas, but can his opinion be changed? Written for RedSwordAngel on deviantart.


Rufus Shinra was in a horrible mood when he walked into work that day, heading straight to his office and trying to ignore the two Turks which followed close behind him to make sure nothing happened to him.

One of which, Reno, was wearing a Santa hat and walking in a zigzag line through the corridor, constantly running into his partner, Rude. It was obvious that Reno had been partying the whole night away because of his behaviour, although Rufus didn't see why anyone would want to. What was the big deal about Christmas, anyway?

"Ow," Reno muttered, having just collided with a door post. He quickly pushed himself away again and opened his eyes wide, smiling. "I'm all good!"

Yes, Rufus thought, now would be a perfect time for Avalanche to strike me. Seeing as Reno was inebriated and Rude was watching him closely, Avalanche would have an easy time attacking him.

Rufus walked into his office then, leaving the door open so that Reno and Rude could walk in after him, and went straight to his desk where he then sat down and pressed the power button on his laptop.

"Sir, would you like a drink?" Rude asked politely as he took up his spot standing at one side of the room. It just happened to be next to the coffee machine, so every morning Rude would ask the same question. Why not, when he was right next to it?

"Yes, thank you." Rufus nodded and waved a hand slightly. Rude then set about preparing his drink and Rufus sighed, pulling out some paperwork that needed to be attended to without delay. It was a miracle that he ever got to go home at night, what with all the things that needed doing.

Reno slouched against the wall opposite where Rude stood, his goggles slipping off his forehead and covering his left eye. He yawned widely and hit his head on the wall behind him, yelping as he did so.

"Sir, permission to-"

"Permission granted." Rufus said instantly. The morning routine was still being followed, as Reno always asked if he could go to the bathroom and then disappeared for a few hours. Rufus figured he was probably chasing after the female Turks, but he never questioned it. Reno was a good Turk and knew when to be serious. His loyalty could not be risked.

Reno nodded and yawned again, walking over to the door and going out, tripping over his feet as he did so.

Rufus signed his name at the bottom of one piece of paper and moved to the next, feeling a bit like a robot as he signed his agreement for a countless number of things which people in ShinRa wanted to be done.

There was a beep from his laptop and he raised his eyes to see that it had booted up, quickly typing his password and logging on. He was just turning his eyes back to his paperwork when his wallpaper appeared and his eyes widened in horror.

"Rude, have you touched my laptop?" he asked instantly, startling the man who was just putting a cup of coffee on his boss' desk. Thankfully none was spilled.

"No, I haven't." Rude said, his eyebrows ever-so-slightly creased in confusion. "Is there a problem?"

"Well," Rufus paused and considered the options. It wasn't really a _problem_ as such, but it was really getting on his nerves. "Someone changed my background, that's all."

"Is the image offensive?" Rude asked.

"No, no it's not," Rufus shook his head and sighed. "But could you find out if Reno or anyone else has touched it recently, as well? Just to find out who it was."

"Of course." Rude nodded and stepped back to his position against the wall and beside the coffee machine.

There was a knock on the door and Rufus said 'come in' before signing his name again and then looking up to see who was entering.

"Excuse me, Sir," It was Tseng. "I'm sorry for the interruption, but Reno said you wanted to see me?"

"Well I don't, so you can go and tell Reno that he's to stay here overnight tonight and help the cleaners with their job." Rufus snapped angrily. How dare Reno give false messages from him to people?

"Of course, sorry again, Sir." Tseng said. He turned to the door but then paused and turned back. "Merry Christmas, Sir."

As he walked out the door, Rufus grumbled under his breath. He hated Christmas. It made everyone more relaxed and no one did their job properly when it came around. Reno was a perfect example of this as he even appeared to still be drunk and it was the day _after_ he had probably been drinking.

It was only a few moments later when the door burst open again and Reno appeared there, a look of depression on his face as he stared at his boss.

"_Why!?_" he whined loudly, and Rufus knew immediately what he was talking about. "I mean, it's _Christmas_, yo!"

"I never asked to see Tseng and one of these days you need to learn your lesson," Rufus said firmly. "You can't just go around telling people things that I have apparently said when I haven't actually said them at all."

"It was just a joke!" Reno complained with a pout. "Where's your Christmas spirit?"

"I must have left it at home." Rufus muttered, unimpressed.

"Well then we've gotta go get it, yo! I mean, Sir!" Reno quickly corrected himself and shook his head to probably try and clear his mind. It served him right to be drunk and trying to debate at the same time.

"We're staying right here, besides, you have work to do and so do I." Rufus pointed out.

"What work do _I_ have?" Reno asked.

"What do you do everyday when you come here, Reno? When you're actually in this office, what do you do?" Rufus asked him, folding his arms on his desk and waiting patiently for an answer.

Reno trudged over to his spot against the wall and leant against it, staring up at the roof with a grumpy expression on his face.

"I'm waiting." Rufus said.

"Fine! I'm protecting you from anything bad happening, yo, Sir." Reno said with a loud sigh. "Can't Rude do that?"

"He is, but I feel much more protected with two Turks than just one." Rufus explained.

They fell silent then and after a moment Rufus went back to his paperwork and Reno pulled out his phone – texting someone or playing a game, no one would ever know.

Or maybe they would.

Rufus' phone buzzed with a message and he tentatively picked it up, well aware of the half smirk on Reno's face which he was trying to disguise by having his eyes half closed. Rufus briefly wondered why the red-headed Turk hadn't bothered to fix his goggles yet, either, but pushed the thought from his mind as he flipped his phone open and clicked to open the message.

_There's a Christmas party going on outside, we're all missing out. Can we go?_

Rufus sighed and shut his phone with a snap, not even being bothered to type a reply.

"Sir..." Reno whined quietly.

"No, Reno. I have things to do." Rufus said.

"Everyone's waiting for you, it'll make them happy, yo!" Reno continued anyway, not taking no for an answer.

"They can wait as long as they like, because I'm not going." Rufus said, then quickly added, "And neither are you."

Reno sighed and began throwing his phone from hand to hand to try and amuse himself so that he didn't die of boredom. Rufus continued working silently and Rude stayed stock-still as he always was.

But then Reno decided to take his amusement up a level. He smirked and threw his phone at Rude's head, intending to hit the man or at the very least disrupt his concentration.

Rude brought a hand up reflexively and caught the phone, pocketing it before returning to his stock-still stance. Reno could not believe his eyes and gaped openly.

"Give it back!" he said, crossing the room quickly and reaching to try and get his phone from his partner's pocket.

"It's distracting you from doing your job." Rude said, knocking Reno's hands away.

"Well I wouldn't need to be distracted if Rufie would just let us go out to-"

"He said no and that's final," Rude interrupted him. "And don't call him Rufie."

"But it's _Christmas_!" Reno exclaimed, exasperated. "Where is everyone's Christmas spirit? Oh that's right, out there with the _party_!"

"Enough!" Rufus shouted, slamming his hands down on his desk as he pushed himself up onto his feet and glared over at the two Turks who had been bickering. "If you will _shut up_ I will let you join the party."

Reno's eyes lit up in excitement and he straightened his goggles – finally!, thought Rufus – before standing straighter than he ever had before and smiled a huge smile.

"Alright, fine," Rufus sighed, giving in as he saw how determined Reno was to get to the party. "But we're _all_ going so that I can keep an eye on you."

"Yes!" Reno said, punching the air with his fist in triumph. "It'll be great, come on!"

Rufus slowly walked around his desk and followed as Reno dashed out of the room, with Rude walking behind him politely. There truly was a party in full swing out in the hall and taking over some of the other rooms as well, and before he knew it, Rufus found himself having fun. He was eating food, accepting gifts from people who he hadn't thought liked him very much and talking in a friendly way to people who usually only ever ordered around.

Begrudgingly, Rufus thought he may as well let the party go on for the whole day. What was wrong with celebrating Christmas, anyway?


End file.
